There’s nothing remarkable in noting the fact that you consider having to pass a slower-moving vehicle to be deeply unpleasant makes you very likely to be an unskilled driver. Passing other vehicles is a normal part of driving and should not make you fearful or angry.
Why are you posting replies that you think have no value? I posted here because there is no real “debate” about this topic, it’s not a matter of “opinion,” nor is it “pointless,” etc., so this seemed like the place.
If you read my original post, my main complaint is people who scream at cyclists that they need to get ON the sidewalk, so no, no “near miss.” This happens even when the cyclist is riding on the shoulder and not blocking the lane at all. It apparently happens because there are many people who actually believe that that is where bicycles are obligated to ride (and also because they are aggressive assholes). Where did they get this false belief and how did they become so confident in it that they think they need to scream at others?
Please, Aquadementia, give me a peek into the squalid inner workings of your road-raging little mind. Why do the other people using the road upset you so?
is Look up other town laws on what is street and sidewalk legal, bring it to the attention of the PD and town. It is so enforced here because you get a fine. Sheriff Joe has problems but he put his foot down on that.
This is absolutely the second dumbest thing you can do on a bike (exceeded only by not wearing a helmet). Here is why. Picture a driver coming out of a driveway or side street and will be turning right. Their head will be turned to the left to look for oncoming traffic, while you sneak up on them from the right.
Like it or not drivers don’t have eyes in the back of their head.
I ride a bike. Lots. I pay excellent attention to my surroundings yet I once hit a bike in this exact scenario. I was leaving a gas station, the sidewalk was clear and there was a parked car next to the driveway. I had pulled out across the sidewalk and partway into the street where my front bumper was about even with the left side of the parked car. Now the sidewalk is behind me so I have no worries about pedestrians.
I am looking left to wait for a traffic break, it comes and as I take my foot off the brake I swivel my head back straight just in time to see a guy on a bike get knocked down by my front bumper. My car had moved maybe 6" forward at that point. Idiot was riding the wrong way because he wanted to be “safe”. It almost got him killed.
Ride with traffic for OG’s sake it is safer.
From your link:
[QUOTE=Minnesota Statute 169.222]
(d) A person operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk, or across
a roadway or shoulder on a crosswalk, shall yield the
right-of-way to any pedestrian and shall give an audible signal
when necessary before overtaking and passing any pedestrian. No
person shall ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk within a business
district unless permitted by local authorities. Local
authorities may prohibit the operation of bicycles on any
sidewalk or crosswalk under their jurisdiction.
(f) A person lawfully operating a bicycle on a sidewalk, or
across a roadway or shoulder on a crosswalk, shall have all the
rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same
circumstances.
[/QUOTE]
Pedestrians are supposed to look both ways before crossing, it makes good sense for drivers to do the same. Leaving aside cyclists, pedestrians are not obligated to walk in the same direction as traffic and joggers can move at a pretty decent clip themselves.
I didn’t say that’s what is taught, I’m saying that’s how drivers act.
I knew when I wrote that somebody would make this comment.
Nice reading comprehension. I was past the sidewalk and out where only vehicles belong. Secondly can you honestly say you have never ever done exactly what I did that is take your foot off the brake as you turn your head to look?
Now let me ask you a question. If the guy I hit had been a drunk in a car driving on the wrong side of the road and by moving 6" there had been a collision would that accident be my fault?
FWIW a close friend in Texas got into the exact same type of accident I did except the bike rider got mouthy and called the cops. The cops cited the bike rider for riding the wrong way.
I made a post once about bike riding on the streets or sidewalk. My contention then, as mine is now, is that its probably safer for the cyclists to ride on the sidewalk, they just have to go slower.
Personally, I don’t feel safe riding on the streets, too much opportunities for cars to paste you to the asphalt. If I rode bikes, I’d do it on the sidewalk. I would rather be responsible for avoiding obstacles on the sidewalk than hope drivers are responsible enough to avoid me. Its basically me taking control over my own safety. On the road, cars are in charge, they need to watch where they’re going. On sidewalks, the cyclist is in charge, they need to walk where they’re going. Sure, it may be less fun for them to slow down at every bush or fence because some kid might run out from behind it, but if you want to bike, find yourself a bike path.
And fucking joggers on MY goddam sidewalk! Oh, dear me, is my fat tire lodged in your rectum? Paramedics will be here soon, try to relax…
And for the record as a cyclist I really, really cannot stand wrong-way cyclists. Especially when they seem to think it is their right to be going the wrong way in a bike lane (hey, which way is that arrow pointing, asshole!). Its even worse when there are no bike lanes as that means they are using space where the bike is supposed to be when traveling properly.
Cars certainly have some responsibilities when pulling out, etc. but there are limits to what can be anticipated. i am the first to give drivers grief for pulling out without checking or right-turing-on-red with no consideration for pedestrians, but in this case I don’t see what more a driver can do.
Even when a sidewalk is coincident with a bike trail for a bit?
This is exactly why cycling on the sidewalks is so dangerous for cyclists. It’s not that drivers are so bad (although they are, and I don’t know why cyclists don’t account for that), it’s that cyclists are in places you don’t expect them, doing speeds you don’t expect.
The other problem is right turns - I’ve driven past the sidewalk, and there were no pedes (or bikes), so I’m clear to turn across the crosswalk - except a cyclist has appeared out of nowhere, going very fast where he isn’t supposed to be. How many people shoulder-check to their right when making a right turn from the far right lane? None, because there aren’t supposed to be any vehicles there.
No, you can’t hear bikes coming up behind you at all - they are surprisingly quiet. I suspect that the cyclists know very well that they are giving the pedes enough room, but when you’re walking, you’re extremely vulnerable, and a vehicle missing you by a foot doesn’t feel like very much space.
As for kids on bikes, I think they’re allowed to ride on the sidewalk here until 12 years old; 10-12 year olds are the absolute worst for buzzing pedes and getting a big kick out of it. Just last fall I got buzzed by a group of adolescent boys on bikes; if my husband had been on the bike side, he would have knocked the little shits off their bikes. As it was, I just jumped back in fright and yelled after them.
Sadly, this is not limited to the sidewalk. On the MUTs around here we have groups of kids riding who exhibit the following bad habits/behaviors:
-
Eyes are usually looking the center-of-mass of the group rather than the direction they are going.
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Inability to maintain even a basic straight line
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Buzzing of pedestrians on the MUT
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Buzzing of cyclists & rollerbladers
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Riding bicycles much too large or small for their size (contributing to #2)
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Thinking every other cyclist going the other way is playing “chicken”.
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(for somewhat older kids) ride-by groping of female joggers
There is a ‘season’ for these groups of kids on the MUTs. It happens right after school lets out. Pretty much every year I either see or have some kind of incident with one of these packs during my commute. Most of these incidents usually just involve me having to break hard because the lead kid was looking behind him not where he was going, but one incident in the late 90’s was a cascade of disaster caused by one of the kids groping a jogger. It ended with three kids bleeding and the spokes on my back tire getting bent. Ugly.
I should explain myself (#44) and my untypical conditions: I was thinking of roads with 1 vehicle in five minutes, with at least quarter of a mile visibility, no blind intersections or alleys, no sidewalks and frequently no shoulders.
Sure, keep riding your bike at the highest speed possible and literally steering it right into oncoming traffic, then blaming the drivers because bicylists are above the law and never, ever at fault. Luckily for those of us with places to be, bicyclists like this are a problem that solves itself.
Last evening, I was driving along a 4-lane road with a 45 mph speed limit, and this asshole dad was biking, pulling his kid in a bike trailer on the sidewalk! I wanted to yell at the fucker to get on the road where he belonged. If **Ludovic **had been with me we could have taken care of him.
The sidewalk is *never *appropriate at *any *time. It is the only absolute in life, but at least we have that.
I find the estimates of bicyclists capabilities in this thread to be fascinating. On the road, they’re barely more than a speed bump, plodding along and in everybody’s way. But on the sidewalk, they’re going 40 miles an hour, easy.
It’s almost as if cars go much faster than pedestrians, somehow.
I ride on the sidewalk occasionally. Usually when to do otherwise would mean crossing a heavily trafficed street to ride a couple hundred feet and then cross back again. I just do whatever makes me feel safest. When on my bike I put my own safety first. I’m selfish like that!
But only you get to have feelings instead of following laws. One driver honks at you and you’re ready to give him the chair, I’m sure.
I commend you on being honest about the unbridled narcissism behind the thought process of most bicyclists, though.